Participation in youth sports while wearing one or more earrings or ear piercings generates a host of safety issues that are often addressed by rules and policies. Objects that strike the ear when an earring is in place can cause the backing to strike the skull causing discomfort and/or injury. Earrings and piercings of the ear can also snag on clothing or equipment. Such injuries have predominantly been seen in sports such as soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, softball and basketball, to name a few. In most cases rules require a player to remove his/her earring prior to the start of play. This can present a difficult decision for some athletes with newly pierced ears because they have been told that if they remove the earrings from the piercing that the hole will close up. This can lead to players choosing not to play rather than choosing to remove their earring(s). Some leagues allow a player to cover the earring or ear piercing with tape such as athletic tape. However, the athletic tape provides little to no protection and has significant aesthetic drawbacks.
Other solutions have considered medical adhesive bandages, which may have a thicker, padded portion that is centrally located on the bandage, however the padded portion typically does not cover all portions of the ear and the earring that need to be protected. For instance if the padded portion covers the earring on the front of the earlobe, then only a thin adhesive layer typically protects the back of the earring (or the earring backing). Adhesive bandages are also designed to be substantially flush with the surface that they are covering. Earrings present sharp protruding edges, and anything but the subtle curves that bandages typically affix to on human flesh. As such, adhesive bandages are awkward to affix to both the earlobe and the earring. Additionally, even this added thickness may not be sufficient to prevent injury to the head or neck if the ball hits the ear shoving the back portion or earring backing into the athletes head or neck. Athletes, especially younger ones, can also be self-conscious of wearing “Band-Aids” on their ears.
A variety of solutions propose the use of some sort of adhesive to secure a protecting device or material to the ear. However, these solutions are one-time use solutions.
Yet further solutions have considered clip on protective earrings for attachment to a user's ear including a pair of pivotally-coupled clamshell protectors. However, the clamshell design allows an earring backing to move in various directions relative to the protector, which can lead to discomfort. Furthermore, a clamshell shape often has a shallow depth making it more likely that an earring backing will be pressured by the clamshell protector into the ear thus further causing discomfort. Additionally, a clamshell design distributes a pressure of the clamping around a narrow outer rim or circumference of the clamshell thus applying focused pressure on the ear.
There is therefore a need in the art for a reusable protective device offering greater protection than athletic tape or bandages, offering comfort, and being acceptable by a variety of youth sports organizers.